We Survived!

19 students, 5 adults, 3 vans, 1200+ miles, hard floors, small showers, dirty clothes, paint highlighted hair, sore backs, sheetrock, yardwork, spur of the moment fixes, demo, rebuild and an overall great time!
We survived our mission trip to Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
3 years later and the devestation in still evident on every street, and not every street is up and running.
What another wonderful giving and serving experience.

A house like this on just about every street. That's a FEMA cottage on the right.

Beach front home.

Vaughan on a pier in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the dearest things was working along side my boys.

Pray for the Bay.
~Michelle

I Now Taxi People Children to Work

They've been found out.
As frustrated as I get I've been saying for a few months now that every house needs a teenage boy around.
They can carry heavy things, crawl into stuffy attics, open spaghetti jars with their bare hands, and yardwork. They can do yardwork.
About a month ago Vaughan and his best friend were asked to lay some sod and other landscape work for a friend of ours.
"The Sod Squad" ~ that's what they called themselves that week.
Now they're the "Post Patrol". They've been hired to help dig holes and you guessed it, put in posts for a fence. The Post Patrol has logged around 24 hours.

The golden part is this: these last few weeks they've been working to make money to pay to go on a mission trip where they will work for free. They're calling it ''WFWin'" pronounced woofin', that's Working For Work; when they return home they'll start workin' for money!

So far they've had 5 other job offers for when they return from their mission trip. Can you say it's my turn to have my meals paid for *smile*

So they've been discovered and somehow I just know that I will see less and less of him.
*sniff*
*sniff*
Why don't they stay little forever?
Hey I'll stay focused on the brighter side, not only is it good to have a teenage boy around, it's good that I have one, right now, who works for me, for FREE!!

Teenage Messages

said to me by my 14-year old on Saturday:
"Mom, Somebody Somebody called and said they'd talk to you tomorrow"

Steve:
"Who's Somebody Somebody?"

Me:
"He's a friend of Anybody and relative to Nobody."

Fortunatly Somebody called today and left a message, her real name is Peggy!

Where Did the Time Go?

As I was driving home with Justin today I was freaked out.
I looked over at him and it hit me- he's not a little boy anymore.
I was sure when we left the house he was.
I just know his legs weren't so long and he didn't fill up the seat quite like he did when I glanced his way.

So what surprised you recently? Post it and let me know.

Thankful Five

I started to write a daily thankful five, but I'm not a daily person.
That sounds bad I know because I try to be thankful each day.
I still write in my old school journal, ya know the one with a pen and paper, what I'm thankful for and I think I'll keep it there.
I do encourage everyone to daily jot down God's goodness in their lives; then refer back to it as often as possible.

Trash Pickin' At It's Best

It was pretty cool.
Tonight I picked up 2 trash bags FULL of trash from the side of US 1.
I did it with 3 middle schoolers.
3 other teams of middle schoolers did the same.
We had a blast!
I'm blessed.
~Michelle

It Hit Me

Intentional
that's the word
intentional and proactive
hmmm...
time for some word study
and did I tell you, I'm going to San Francisco. I am.

Triple Yuk! 2008

Here are some pictures from the Triple Yuk Middle School youth event we held over the weekend.

We had 6 events and 30 students showed up, we split them into 5 teams, added a Lifeguard to each team and began with the not-so messy events and ended with the grand finale events of Pasta-a-la-Kitty and Chuck Wagon.

First event:
that's a student and a Lifeguard! Lifeguards are our adult leaders- who rock by the way!
In this event each team had to dress 6 hot dogs with ketchup and mustard. Of course we're creative about how they get those condiments on the dog!

This happens to be my son getting made up to be a snowman.

The Pasta-a-la-Kitty tub!

Yet another of our fearless Lifeguards!

Lovin 'it!

This is the only picture of me and one of my children. That's me- the short one and my oldest son with the red shorts- the tall one; and one of my sidekicks still with her pudding filled baseball cap on!

To cool down and rinse off we had an awesome 20 foot by 50 foot slip-n-slide. This picture is 2 of our Lifeguards! Again what an incredible group of people we have investing in the lives of these precious, middle schoolers.


The whole gang!
Triple Yuk "oh"8 Baby!

We Survived...

...Over 48 hours with no a/c in over 90 degree weather, thats' like 70 something at night.

... Triple Yuk! Pictures to come, a blast! Perhaps the best event all year! Already excited for Triple Yuk sqaured in '09!

~Michelle

Thankful Five

6. Air conditioning
7. That my kids have the best dad they could ever ask for
8. Laughter
9. Work/job
10. My mom and the values she instilled in me the manners she taught me and the way she raised me in general (dysfunctions and all)

~Michelle

It's Fixed and Tomorrow's Gonna Be Messy

The a/c is fixed!
We're sleeping in cool air tonight!
After 48 hours + with no a/c I realized a few things:

1. The longer one goes without a/c the more the body adjusts to the heat
2. 3 fans and 73 degree temps may seem like they equal cool, they don't
3. 2 cold showers a day help with the 90 degree heat
4. I love a/c- LOVE IT!

Tomorrow is our Triple Yuk Event with the middle schoolers. For a taste I'll give you the game names: Human Hot Dog, World's Worst Hat Head, Something's Fishy, Frosty the Snowman, Pasta A la Kitty, Chuck Wagon and Zit Spit. We have a 20 foot by 50 foot slip-n-slide to rinse cool off in after!

Welcome to middle school youth!

~Michelle

Identity Issues

Could someone tell me why my dog thinks he's a person.

And always wants to wake my children up when they sleep in?

No kidding.

If they sleep past 8:30am he's on it.

Right now he's dying to get into their room to jump on them, lick them and wake them! He scratches at the door looking at me like I'm a bad parent.

We're on vacation dude!

Let 'em sleep!

What's up with this?

Ghetto-Fabulous

We survived night #1 with no a/c.
After waking this morning we realized I slept better for 2 reasons.

#1 I didn't go to bed until midnight so the room had cooled down and I had too. I actually spent 30-45 minutes laying out on the trampoline last night. It was beautiful out, the breeze was constant and kept me cool and the bugs away. The stars were so clear- it was awesome.

#2 the fan, one of 3 in the room, that sat in the window is on my side of the bed so I had a nice direct breeze blowing on me all night.

Needless to say Steve slept, he was just a little hotter than usual. Not that I don't think he's always a hottie!

The kids moved all their gaming equipment out into the Lego room and set up camp there. Did I mentioned we finished school last week and are in vacation mode right now, well the kids are, I have a FULL week of work this week! The Lego room is not under our main house a/c unit so it has a stand alone unit. That kept them pretty cool. Of course it was the night Vaughan had a friend over! We try to keep things Ghetto-fabulous around here, especially with company over! Don't laugh at the ghetto part- just ask around about pulling out into traffic with our car.

With everything that was in me I wanted to pitch a fit over this whole a/c thing.
I just couldn't do it!
Have you ever had that?
When your flesh wants to behave in a certain way, maybe even your mind too; but the Holy Spirit in you just won't allow it!
That's what I had going on and I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness in my life. That He is always there! Encouraging me and prompting me to go against the flow of my flesh. Lord knows I've become and expert and jumping into the stream and going with the flow; that's what makes this particular event all the sweeter.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—

where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—

the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

Rock on!

~Michelle

Thankful Five

With each day I post I'm going to attempt to write 5 things I'm thankful for, I got the idea from Lisa and I'm calling it my Thankful Five.
If you know my brain you know I'll most likely forget, but here goes:

today my Thankful Five are:
1. my kids and their mouths- specifically that they have never complained about it being hot or that they travel with me to work and often eat a late lunch because of this
2. friends, Rhonda, Amanda, Lisa, who listen and care and give good advice
3. my job and it's flexibility
4. the animals God has placed in my care- they bring me joy!
5. flavored creamer for my coffee

~Michelle <><

The A/C Died Today

We're broke.
Anyone know the low temps tonight?
or tomorrow?
Good times.

Random Update in Pics

My car from the accident- getting fixed next week!


Steve his dad, step-mom, brother and sister.

We rarely see lizards 'round these parts!

Boys and their guns. At least they have their googles on and are somewhat away from the house.

Googles? Is this a symptom of too much online activity? I meant goggles for those of you who would love to correct me!

~Michelle

Waiting...

Waiting patiently on the Lord isn't always easy.
That's where we're at right now. Waiting. Waiting to take the next step, praying about what it should be; waiting.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Psalm 37:7

Waiting. Still. I think about God and the fact that He knows what I'll say before I say it and what my day will hold before one even comes to be. Knowing that and knowing me, perhaps a little ADHD, He still instructs me towait still before Him. I like the King James version because it says "rest in the Lord".

In the Hebrew that word rest means what we think: to be still, rest, silent, wait. The part of the definition that I found most interesting was that it also means: to be dumb, to be astonished, to stop.

Webster defines dumb in many ways but as an adjective the first entry is: lacking the human power of speech.

Hello, let me introduce myself: my name is Michelle and this is my sidekick: my mouth!

After reading that definition I wondered to myself: "Michelle, are you resting, are you being dumb in your rest, or are you so busy in your mind that the physical rest is not giving way to the mental rest, to the rest of your mouth- even when that mouth is speaking to itself in your head?"

My first answer is "yes, of course that's how I'm resting"; see I'm a youngest child, two older brothers, the baby of the family, somewhat spoiled- at least in the way that I've called the shots since I was asked to lead the family around Magic Kingdom at age 8 or planning family vacations at age 15. All that to say I tend to think I know what's best- after all Disney went just fine and our family vacations were always a blast! So my rest tends to be me planning and being sure my way is the way.

The cold hard reality is no. No, I don't always rest in the Lord and wait patiently on Him. I can for a little while but then when crisis comes I jump into my head and start blabbing away at how bad things are; how things aren't going the way they should; how things will never change for us. Lies- all lies, I know, but it's the reality of living in my head.

We're in a season in life right now where we are waiting on the Lord. We're seeking Him in a few areas: should Steve and I go back to school? Is going back to school and getting the degrees we are wondering about part of fulfilling God's plan for our lives. What will our job situations look like if we go back to school? Will we stay here much longer? Are these decisions what we think would work or is it what the Lord wants?

So we're waiting. Resting.

So today, as I step out into a new day I have a new sense of waiting on the Lord, a new sense of dumbness. A new quiet. A new rest. One that keeps my mouth shut, my ears and heart open.

I wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God.

Psalm 38:15

(emphasis mine)

Yesterday we took him to the beach.
He went with a friend.
To meet some other friends.
He usually doesn't like to go to the beach,
at least not with mom and bubby.

He said some people from church were going.
When clarified those "people" boiled down to one name.

Darn those "people."
They have long hair and pretty smiles.
They never showed up at the beach, I couldn't help but be happy they didn't.

Somehow, I thought that 5 letter word would cease to exist around here.
It didn't.
I've got teenage boys and g-i-r-l-s are inevitable.

I'm trusting these years ahead to God.
Only through Him will these girls I survive!

Beach anyone?